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What do you get when you join a Carnegie Mellon robotics engineer
with a Northwestern MBA grad? In the case of 4moms, a whole new
take on the stroller and infant seat. Now flush with $20 million
in Series A funding from Bain Capital Ventures in Boston, 4moms
can add more designers, engineers and production staff to its
inventive child-care products business.

The guys behind Pittsburgh-based 4moms, Rob Daley and Henry Thorne, joined
forces in 2003 on their first product, a digital shower
controller, which generated more interest from mothers worried
about scalding water than from their intended target market of
male gadget geeks. Intrigued, Daley and Thorne turned their
attention to what's known as the juvenile market. They formed
a focus group that included Daley's wife and four of her
friends, who unspooled a wish list of features they found
lacking in the products they used with their small children
every day.

"Ultimately, we learned that these moms wanted products that were
as elegant and cool as they saw themselves. We realized they
didn't want monkeys or giraffes on their stuff," Thorne says.

Daley and Thorne set out to bring an Apple-like design and
engineering aesthetic to the world of strollers and play yards.
Their Cleanwater Infant Tub allows clean water to flow into a
baby's bath while draining the dirty water. The Origami stroller
opens and closes with a simple turn of a knob and touch of a
button. And the mamaRoo, an infant seat that uses a dual-motion
robotic platform to mimic parents' movements, is an alternative
to the bouncy seat. The company also recently launched its
version of a pack-and-play portable crib, the Breeze play yard,
which opens and closes with one hand in a single motion.

Response from the public has been positive, to say the least.
4moms has enjoyed growth of 200 to 400 percent per year and
projects 2012 revenue of $18.5 million. But Daley and Thorne knew
from the start they needed funding to scale and fill out their
long-term business plan: investing in R&D and in a supply
chain to handle orders from a growing list of stores (500 and
counting) in 26 countries. "We have 13 wish-list projects, but we
could only [actively] develop five of them," Daley says.

Enter Scott Friend, managing director at Bain Capital. "We like
really strong barriers to entry, like unique intellectual
property or complexity with the operation, so that it's not very
likely that 10 other competitors are going to jump into the
market and eat their lunch," he says. "Mixing sophisticated
robotics with kids' products gives 4moms those competitive
advantages."

The funding round, which closed in August, will allow 4moms to
focus on product development. Meanwhile, Friend's team at Bain is
helping with the search for a candidate to head 4moms' marketing.
As growth fires up with new investment and talent, Daley is
optimistic about 4moms' future as a company known first and
foremost for design.

"When the company started, Henry and I had this shared vision of
how important good design was," he says. "It still is, and
everyone on the industrial design team knows their jobs are
well-assured."